Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

Vartuchoux!

English translation:

Vertudieu

Added to glossary by Alison Billington
Oct 6, 2008 17:57
15 yrs ago
3 viewers *
French term

Vartuchoux!

French to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature dialect
The character Dimas in the French playwright, Marivaux' 'Le triomphe de l'amour' speaks in broad dialect. 'Varuchoux! vous êtes un fin marle; mais morgué! je sis marle itou, moi.' can anyone give me Varuchoux in metropolitan French or English?
Proposed translations (English)
5 +3 Vertudieu
4 +2 Zounds!/ 'sdeath!/'strewth!
4 Ventrebleu
2 -1 Verrue choux

Proposed translations

+3
1 hr
Selected

Vertudieu

My "Dictionnaire des jurons" says it's an alteration of "vertudieu", any slightly blasphemous dialect curse word will do.
Peer comment(s):

agree Bourth (X) : I take back my ramblings!
14 mins
agree Sophie Raimondo
24 mins
agree Jennie Knapp
2 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "One or two odd trtanslations of this one! However yours had the dictionary to back it up and sounds most likely in context."
11 mins

Ventrebleu

There are others!
Something went wrong...
-1
28 mins

Verrue choux

Given the accent in the play, it could well be "verrue choux", or something like "warty" or "poxy cabbage", with all the quaint rusticity that cabbage entails. An English contemporary equivalent might be something like "poxwort" or "poxwurzel" even! Don't forget to Rrrroll the Rrrr.

I doubt there is a modern-day equivalent or even that the word ever existed, so it's up to your imagination, I imagine.
Peer comment(s):

disagree Sophie Raimondo : This is funny... The real word is "Vertuchoux"
1 hr
Something went wrong...
+2
1 hr

Zounds!/ 'sdeath!/'strewth!

Here is the etymology and definition given by the GR: "ÉTYM. 1665, vertubleu; vertuchou(x), 1616; vertudieu, av. 1848; vertubieu, xve; altér. de vertu Dieu. → Tudieu.
v

¨ Vx ou par plais. Jurons en usage aux xviie et xviiie siècles (Molière, Dom Juan, iv, 7). | Par la vertuchoux (Hugo, les Misérables, V, 6).
1 Ah ! c'est odieux !
Otez ces objets de mes yeux !
Pipe, gilet et pantalon…
Vertudieu ! pour qui nous prend-on ?
E. Labiche, la Perle de la Canebière, 13.
2 — Vertuchou, s'écrie le duc. Comment trouvez-vous ma barbe ? J'ai fait venir un barbier de la ville pour me l'accommoder.
R. Queneau, les Fleurs bleues, 1965, p. 119.
In the OED under "zounds"we find as follows : " A euphemistic abbreviation of by God's wounds (1535, 1573, s.v. god n. 14a) used in oaths and asseverations.
1600 Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood Sat. v. 72 If any fall together by the eares, To field cries he; why? zownes (to field) he sweares. 1605 R. Armin Foole vpon F. E3b, One comes sweating, zoones (Cobler) the boots. 1607 Dekker Hist. Sir T. Wyatt Wks. 1873 III. 119 Zwounds I was talking with a crue of vagabondes. 1614 J. Cooke Greene's Tu Quoque C2, Spend. M. Rash! zownds how does he know I am here? 1616 Marlowe's Faustus 1158 Zounds hee'l raise vp a Kennell of Diuels. Ibid. 1300 'Zons, hornes againe. 1623 Shaks. John ii. ii. 466 Zounds, I was neuer so bethumpt with words. 1682 Tories' Conf. in Roxb. Ball. (1882) IV. 269 Dzowns, we'l have none but honest Souls. 1699 Farquhar Love & Bottle ii. ii, Zoons is only us'd by the disbanded Officers and Bullies: but Zauns is the Beaux pronuncation [sic]. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull ii. ix, 'Dswounds! why dost thou not lay out thy money to purchase a place at court? 1739 Joe Miller's Jests 3 Zoons, Sir, said an old Campaigner+who's that? 1812 Combe Picturesque x, Syntax look'd wild—the man said ‘Zounds! You know you betted twenty pounds.’ 1821 Sporting Mag. (N.S.) VII. 180 Zoons! said we, deranging the economy of our grey hairs. 1847 Lytton Lucretia i. i, Zounds, Charles, I love you, and that's the truth. 1883 Fortn. Rev. July 111 Forgiven me! Zounds! I must correct him in that.
As regards "'strewth" it reads: "Short for God's truth, used as an oath. See 'S.
1892 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 20 Mad drunk and resisting the Guard—'Strewth, but I socked it them hard! 1913 A. J. Rees Merry Marauders ix. 149 'Strooth! he's looked up all our lines. 1915 [see king-pin 2]. 1925 [see garn int.]. 1933 M. Lowry Ultramarine ii. 75 Gawd strewth, you're some fellow, you are! 1938 P. Lawlor House of Templemore xvii. 186, I have made a string bookshelf just like you had. Streuth! So you have. 1954 A. Seton Katherine xiv. 235 ‘'Struth,’ said Edmund.+ ‘High time I got me some wife.’ 1975 P. G. Winslow Death of Angel iv. 86 Strewth, they've made a mess of this office. 1977 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 30 Jan. 29/1 Struth! What next? says Sam."
Peer comment(s):

agree Sophie Raimondo
9 mins
agree Yolanda Broad : Yes, this is the right register
7 hrs
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